The present invention relates to a real-time digital radiography system used in an application field; the application field employs a television (TV) camera as an image input means. The television camera is used in the application field where an X-ray image is employed on a real-time basis and the image is processed for clinical diagnosis.
Recently, in the field of diagnosis employer's the X-ray image, the diagnosis relies on a X-ray film; additionally there is a growing expectation for the real-time digital radiography system which provides the diagnosis concurrently with image making so that the treatment plan can be obtained promptly. The real-time digital radiography system is made up of an X-ray TV camera system including an X-ray image intensifier, coupling optics and a TV camera, an image processor which processes the image formed by the transmission of the X-rays through the human body and converted into digital data with an A/D converter, a display unit, and a memory unit. The system is capable of processing, displaying and memorizing the image on a real-time basis.
It has been possible to some extent in the past to express the X-ray image information quantitatively by digital conversion, and this technique has been used for the quantitative diagnosis. The digital conversion of image has allowed the reduction of image storage space and the simplification of search work through the electronic filing of images, and further allowed the transaction of images with external systems over networks such as the Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS).
The real-time digital radiography system having various advantages as mentioned above has been put into practice in the field of heart and vascular clinics, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No.55-58682 for example, and it is now applied extensively in clinics. However, these conventional systems are deficient in the resolution of output image, and at present they still remain as an assistant role for the diagnosis based on the X-ray image recorded on the film.
More recently, there has been developed a high precision real-time digital radiography system having enhanced resolution as compared with the conventional system, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No.01-277065. This system can now produce images of heart and digestive organs from the usual X-ray film at a resolution comparable to the X-ray film having enhanced sensitivity.
The real-time digital radiography system will further be improved to have higher resolution, and its range of application will extend deep into the field of X-ray image diagnosis.
However, in order for the real-time digital radiography system to become prevalent, the following unsolved problem must be overcome.
At the transition from the diagnosis based on the X-ray film which is currently the major source of the X-ray image diagnosis, there arises the need for storing a vast accumulation of clinical information materials including X-ray films, inspection reports, patient's clinical charts, for example. Although the introduction of the real-time digital radiography system will replace X-ray films with digital images progressively and simplify their handling, large quantities of inspection reports, patient's clinical charts and old X-ray films are left intact. At the site of the usual diagnosis, an X-ray image, an inspection report and patient's clinical charts are usually accessed at the same time, and therefore digital conversion of X-ray image alone provides little advantage. In fact, the real-time digital radiography system exerts its full advantage when the above-mentioned clinical information materials are all converted into digital and they are accessed concurrently and randomly, and in this case, the system can readily be connected to such a network as PACS and it allows information transaction through network terminals installed in proper places.
Due to the foregoing background situation, the real-time digital radiography system necessitates, besides the function of direct introduction of X-ray image and its digital conversion, an additional function of entering other clinical information material as digital images, thereby overcoming the foregoing prior art deficiency and enhancing the system value.